Features

When a Linux system runs out of memory, a special agent, the out-of-memory killer, rushes to its aid. Facebook has now introduced its own OOM killer. What makes it different from its kernel-based counterpart? And what is an OOM killer really?

Before the web as we know it existed, Usenet performed the same tasks now done by web forums and social networks. Despite its declining popularity, Usenet is still employed to publish articles, sustain mailing lists, and even upload files.

If you want features, bells and whistles, and configurability in spades, your best choice of desktop is probably KDE's Plasma desktop. Navigating and discovering all that's on offer can be a challenge, though.

In this issue, sys admin columnist and tool veterinarian Charly Kühnast invites Sysdig, the jack-of-all-trades among system diagnostic tools, into his surgery for a quick checkup. The project promises to unite the functionality of lsof, iftop, netstat, tcpdump, and others.